Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Fat or obese?

A row has erupted after a minister and prominent physician recommended that patients be called ‘FAT’ and not ‘obese’. Actually I don’t want politicians lecturing me at all on what vocabulary we should use in any context. Are we to call anorexics? Skinbags? Are we to call kids who have learning difficulties ‘stupid’? How about kids who wear glasses? Specky? Would Anne Milton say to Anne Widdicombe’s face that she was a ‘fatty’?

Jamie Oliver has also been attacked for a ‘lecturing’ approach to parents and children. So it’s OK to lecture them on maths, religious education and other subjects, but not on their health? School does much damage to children by feeding them foods with dangerous levels of saturated fats. There’s something deeply duplicitous about a government that wants education to be one long lecture, but eschews advice on nutrition. Andrew Landsley, who made this attack is somewhat ‘obese’ but let’s start calling him ‘fatty’ in public and see how he likes it. Then there’s fatty Tories such as Boris Johnson, Ken Clarke and huge fat f***ks such as Eric Pickles and Nicholas Soames. Let’s use Parliamentary privilege to denounce them as ‘fatties’ in the House of Commons. Cameron himself has a podgy face and Osborne a beer belly. Let’s be clear, they’re fat because they eat too many expensive lunches and dinners. It’s their fault.

Even at the height of my training regime ( a few too many moons ago admittedly) I had a fairly high BMI due to being broad shouldered and muscular, even with a low percentage body fat content.

Now that I have become more comfortable with my body I am what some would call getting a bit fat. Medically I am borderline obese.

I accept that most of this is semantics ... I am overweight and it affects my health. Whether people say fat or obese makes no difference ... it is a description ... a fact. It is how the impact of this fact that needs to be worded better at times.

Phrases like "It is one of the reasons why your knackered knees will not improve" or "It is putting a strain on your heart and puts you in a higher risk category of having a heart attack" make the difference.

This is giving them a taste of their own medicine and in case of politicians there is no dearth of adjectives. Corrupt, greedy, opportunist, lier, stupid, swindler, cheat, shammer, scam-chap,whore monger, hog wash specialist and the innocent of all is-fattey-cute paunchy fatty!